No, an egg cannot get stuck in the intestines, unless the chicken ate it. Those are two separate systems. Just like with humans. It might appear so, on necropsy, but who looks really closely at a rotten egg in a dead chicken?

__________________I just haven't been the same since that house fell on my sister.

No, an egg cannot get stuck in the intestines, unless the chicken ate it. Those are two separate systems. Just like with humans. It might appear so, on necropsy, but who looks really closely at a rotten egg in a dead chicken?

I think what she meant was the egg would be laid and then lodge in the anal canal = intestinal canal. This would not happen *naturally*, the chicken would sit on it and push it into that canal.

She butchers a few thousand chickens a year. If you were going to ask someone who knows the answer, who would it be? (Not me for sure.)

I tried to look this bizarre situation up by searching for more information on the internet, and I have not found anything else about it. I have no experience.

No, an egg cannot get stuck in the intestines, unless the chicken ate it. Those are two separate systems. Just like with humans. It might appear so, on necropsy, but who looks really closely at a rotten egg in a dead chicken?

A chicken only has one exit oriface, the cloaca. The reproductive tract does hook up with the intestines. But, for an egg to get into the intestines, it would have to go around a corner and upstream into the intestine.

__________________
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A chicken only has one exit oriface, the cloaca. The reproductive tract does hook up with the intestines. But, for an egg to get into the intestines, it would have to go around a corner and upstream into the intestine.

I did finally talk with the organic farmer about the 'stuck egg' problem. She said they have 200 egg layers so some 30 dozen eggs a few times a week.

Sometimes a layer will become lethargic and they won't know what is wrong until they decide to cull them, cut them open for meat chicken. They'll find a stuck egg.

She said that usually it doesn't get stuck in the egg laying canal, it usually lodges in the intestinal canal and rots there and doesn't hatch. So it's very uncommon.

Who knew!! not me! Kind of shocking really.

The lethargy was the sign I was watching for--that and cold feet and a change in skin color until I figured out that only the Rhode Island Reds lay daily--the Buffs and the Plymouth Rocks take a day off (and not always Sunday) every week. And then there was also the issue of finding the hidden clutch...I found 13 eggs hidden in one clutch in December. Mine are pretty consistent and everyone has usually laid by 9:30 - 10 a.m. (I used to not let them out until they'd finished, now they go back in an lay in the nest boxes). I'm not as paranoid as I was when I first got the chickens. However, a friend posted on facebook this morning that a raccoon got into her hens' coop and killed two hens and 18 chicks....sad.

However, a friend posted on facebook this morning that a raccoon got into her hens' coop and killed two hens and 18 chicks....sad.

Get one good live trap and bait it with sardines or cheese. It's always nice to have a live trap available.
Last year we had such trouble with our gardens and a raccoon--and we ended up trapping him ON TOP of the PICNIC TABLE, on the Deck in a live trap.

You know, I know so little about the chickens, I didn't think it was too much information to hear about how chickens only have one 'vent'. I had no idea, good to know.